Wikipedia:Main Page history/2012 October 10

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Today's featured article
Allegro is a musical by Richard Rodgers (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II (book and lyrics), their third collaboration for the stage, which premiered on Broadway on October 10, 1947. After the immense successes of the first two Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, Oklahoma! and Carousel, the pair sought a subject for their next play. Hammerstein had long contemplated a serious work that would deal with the problems of an ordinary man in the fast-moving modern world. Rodgers and he sought to create a work that would be as innovative as their first two stage musicals. To that end, they created a play with a large cast, including a Greek chorus. After a disastrous tryout in New Haven, Connecticut, the musical opened on Broadway to a large advance sale of tickets and very mixed reviews. The Broadway run, directed by Agnes de Mille, ended after nine months; it had no West End production and has rarely been revived. (more...) Recently featured: Tool – Little Butte Creek – Tibet during the Ming Dynasty Archive – By email – More featured articles...
Did you know...
From Wikipedia's newest content: ... that the 2.0-millimetre (0.079 in) long Nanotermes (pictured) are possibly the smallest adult termites known? ... that Selena's "No Quiero Saber" was included in the official Latin album for the 1996 Summer Olympics? ... that soldiers in the mixed-gender Israeli Caracal Battalion successfully thwarted what was described as "a very big terrorist attack" on 21 September 2012? ... that the painting Les orangers by Gustave Caillebotte depicts his brother in the same outfit that Gustave was shown wearing in a painting by Renoir? ... that Millennium's "Owls" was inspired by the earlier episode "The Hand of St. Sebastian"? ... that a stained glass window in St Oswald's Church, Ravenstonedale, Cumbria, is to the memory of "the last female martyr burnt at Tyburn for the cause of the Protestant religion" in 1685? Archive – Start a new article – Nominate an article

In the news
John Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery that mature cells can be converted to stem cells. SpaceX launches the first commercially contracted re-supply mission to the International Space Station. Hugo Chávez (pictured) is re-elected President of Venezuela for a fourth term. Sébastien Loeb wins the World Rally Championship drivers' title for a record ninth consecutive year. Paolo Gabriele, former butler of Pope Benedict XVI, is sentenced to 18 months in prison for aggravated theft of confidential papers. Syrian civil war – Wikinews – Recent deaths – More current events...
On this day...
October 10: National Day in Fiji (1970) and Taiwan (1911) 1780 – One of the deadliest Atlantic hurricanes on record struck the Caribbean Sea, killing at least 22,000 people over the next several days. 1911 – The Xinhai Revolution began with the Wuchang Uprising, marking the beginning of the collapse of the Qing Dynasty and the establishment of the Republic of China. 1933 – In the first proven act of air sabotage in the history of commercial aviation, a United Airlines Boeing 247 exploded in mid-air near Chesterton, Indiana, US, killing all seven people aboard. 1964 – The opening ceremony of the 1964 Summer Olympics took place in Tokyo, the first to be telecast live internationally via satellite. 1982 – Maximilian Kolbe (pictured), who had volunteered to die in place of a stranger in the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz in Poland, was canonized by the Catholic Church. More anniversaries: October 9 – October 10 – October 11 Archive – By email – List of historical anniversaries It is now October 10, 2012 (UTC) – Refresh this page

Today's featured picture

Fridtjof Nansen (1861–1930) was a Norwegian explorer, scientist, diplomat, humanitarian and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He led the team that made the first crossing of the Greenland interior in 1888, and won international fame after reaching a record northern latitude of 86°14′ during his North Pole expedition of 1893–96. Although he retired from exploration after his return to Norway, his techniques of polar travel and his innovations in equipment and clothing influenced a generation of subsequent Arctic and Antarctic expeditions. In 1922 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on behalf of the displaced victims of the First World War and related conflicts.

Photo: Henry Van der Weyde; Restoration: Smalljim/PLW

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